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% The Spark Mini Might Be the Perfect Guitar Practice Amp GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Opinion News &gt; Home Theater & Entertainment <h1> The Spark Mini Might Be the Perfect Guitar Practice Amp</h1> <h2> Small, powerful, and totally cute</h2> By Charlie Sorrel Charlie Sorrel Senior Tech Reporter Charlie Sorrel has been writing about technology, and its effects on society and the planet, for 13 years.
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% The Spark Mini Might Be the Perfect Guitar Practice Amp GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Opinion News > Home Theater & Entertainment

The Spark Mini Might Be the Perfect Guitar Practice Amp

Small, powerful, and totally cute

By Charlie Sorrel Charlie Sorrel Senior Tech Reporter Charlie Sorrel has been writing about technology, and its effects on society and the planet, for 13 years.
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lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on March 1, 2022 11:20AM EST Fact checked by Jerri Ledford...
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lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on March 1, 2022 11:20AM EST Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Western Kentucky University Gulf Coast Community College Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others.
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lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on March 1, 2022 11:20AM EST Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Western Kentucky University Gulf Coast Community College Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others.
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Brandon Kumar 6 minutes ago
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Henry Schmidt 1 minutes ago
The mini takes advantage of marvelous modern technology that lets small speakers sound better than b...
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lifewire's fact checking process Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Home Theater & Entertainment Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming <h3> Key Takeaways</h3> Positive Grid’s tiny coffee-table amp is battery-powered and smartphone-controlled.It’s the little sibling of the original Spark.The Spark Mini launches for pre-order on March 2.<br/> Positive Grid Imagine a tiny, purse-sized guitar amp that packs more features and flexibility than the fanciest amps of a few years ago. You just imagined the Spark Mini. The Spark Mini is the follow-up to Positive Grid's Spark, a combo guitar amp, speaker, and USB audio interface for home recording rig.
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lifewire's fact checking process Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Home Theater & Entertainment Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming

Key Takeaways

Positive Grid’s tiny coffee-table amp is battery-powered and smartphone-controlled.It’s the little sibling of the original Spark.The Spark Mini launches for pre-order on March 2.
Positive Grid Imagine a tiny, purse-sized guitar amp that packs more features and flexibility than the fanciest amps of a few years ago. You just imagined the Spark Mini. The Spark Mini is the follow-up to Positive Grid's Spark, a combo guitar amp, speaker, and USB audio interface for home recording rig.
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Henry Schmidt 1 minutes ago
The mini takes advantage of marvelous modern technology that lets small speakers sound better than b...
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The mini takes advantage of marvelous modern technology that lets small speakers sound better than big speakers of the past. In terms of features, it gets almost everything right—so even professional guitarists are finding a reason to get one of these tiny powerhouses.
Aria Nguyen Member
access_time 12 minutes ago
The mini takes advantage of marvelous modern technology that lets small speakers sound better than big speakers of the past. In terms of features, it gets almost everything right—so even professional guitarists are finding a reason to get one of these tiny powerhouses.
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"I have the original Spark—it's really nice as a practice amp. Surprisingly loud as well, I've brought it along to jam with a friend (no drummer), and it was more than loud enough," guitarist and electronic musician Porkloin told Lifewire via forum post.&nbsp; &#34;I&#39;m going to probably get [the Spark Mini] because I already have a nice amp for actual performance, and the mini is much closer to what I need than the original Spark.
Audrey Mueller Member
access_time 10 minutes ago
"I have the original Spark—it's really nice as a practice amp. Surprisingly loud as well, I've brought it along to jam with a friend (no drummer), and it was more than loud enough," guitarist and electronic musician Porkloin told Lifewire via forum post.  "I'm going to probably get [the Spark Mini] because I already have a nice amp for actual performance, and the mini is much closer to what I need than the original Spark.
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Daniel Kumar 2 minutes ago
I want something that is battery-powered, and I can just stuff away on a shelf when I'm not play...
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I want something that is battery-powered, and I can just stuff away on a shelf when I&#39;m not playing it.&#34; <h2> Totally Amped </h2> In the beginning, guitar amps were about making an electric guitar loud enough to hear on stage. Then guitar players discovered that cranking them to the limit made them start to distort, and they liked it.
Elijah Patel Member
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I want something that is battery-powered, and I can just stuff away on a shelf when I'm not playing it."

Totally Amped

In the beginning, guitar amps were about making an electric guitar loud enough to hear on stage. Then guitar players discovered that cranking them to the limit made them start to distort, and they liked it.
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Julia Zhang 8 minutes ago
The sound of the electric guitar was exciting, dirty, and addictive, but getting those broken, gnarl...
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The sound of the electric guitar was exciting, dirty, and addictive, but getting those broken, gnarly tones meant volume levels that would violate your apartment lease agreement and turn your neighbors violent. There have been many solutions to bringing distortion and override to the guitar at more ear- (and neighbor-) friendly volume levels, but the big one today is computer modeling.
Julia Zhang Member
access_time 7 minutes ago
The sound of the electric guitar was exciting, dirty, and addictive, but getting those broken, gnarly tones meant volume levels that would violate your apartment lease agreement and turn your neighbors violent. There have been many solutions to bringing distortion and override to the guitar at more ear- (and neighbor-) friendly volume levels, but the big one today is computer modeling.
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Thomas Anderson 6 minutes ago
Even your phone can spit out a convincing replica of the most expressive vintage guitar amp, and tha...
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Dylan Patel 1 minutes ago
This is all controlled through a combination of on-device knobs and a companion app.

Bright Spa...

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Even your phone can spit out a convincing replica of the most expressive vintage guitar amp, and that’s exactly how the Sparks work. The Spark and Spark Mini let you switch between many, many different amplifier models, and also use various virtual effect pedals to change the sound.
William Brown Member
access_time 16 minutes ago
Even your phone can spit out a convincing replica of the most expressive vintage guitar amp, and that’s exactly how the Sparks work. The Spark and Spark Mini let you switch between many, many different amplifier models, and also use various virtual effect pedals to change the sound.
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Evelyn Zhang 8 minutes ago
This is all controlled through a combination of on-device knobs and a companion app.

Bright Spa...

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Emma Wilson 3 minutes ago
"Tone" is the term used to mean the quality of the sound you're getting. It's pretty...
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This is all controlled through a combination of on-device knobs and a companion app. <h2> Bright Spark </h2> For a guitarist, a good amp offers both tone and feel.
Ethan Thomas Member
access_time 9 minutes ago
This is all controlled through a combination of on-device knobs and a companion app.

Bright Spark

For a guitarist, a good amp offers both tone and feel.
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Ethan Thomas 7 minutes ago
"Tone" is the term used to mean the quality of the sound you're getting. It's pretty...
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Ava White 5 minutes ago
Again, it's hard to define but utterly essential. Once those are out of the way, everything else...
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&#34;Tone&#34; is the term used to mean the quality of the sound you&#39;re getting. It&#39;s pretty much indefinable, but you know when you&#39;ve got good tone. And &#34;feel&#34; is when you think the amp is responding to all the intricacies of your touch.
Ryan Garcia Member
access_time 30 minutes ago
"Tone" is the term used to mean the quality of the sound you're getting. It's pretty much indefinable, but you know when you've got good tone. And "feel" is when you think the amp is responding to all the intricacies of your touch.
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Joseph Kim 11 minutes ago
Again, it's hard to define but utterly essential. Once those are out of the way, everything else...
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Again, it&#39;s hard to define but utterly essential. Once those are out of the way, everything else is just a bonus. I want something that is battery powered and I can just stuff away on a shelf when I’m not playing it.
Harper Kim Member
access_time 55 minutes ago
Again, it's hard to define but utterly essential. Once those are out of the way, everything else is just a bonus. I want something that is battery powered and I can just stuff away on a shelf when I’m not playing it.
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The Spark Mini has a ten-watt, full-range speaker that can run for eight hours off its USB-charged li-ion battery—like a laptop. Its companion Spark app, for iOS and Android, offers detailed control of amp and pedal models but also lets you dial in backing tracks and can even use AI to come up with an accompaniment for what you’re playing.
Lucas Martinez Moderator
access_time 60 minutes ago
The Spark Mini has a ten-watt, full-range speaker that can run for eight hours off its USB-charged li-ion battery—like a laptop. Its companion Spark app, for iOS and Android, offers detailed control of amp and pedal models but also lets you dial in backing tracks and can even use AI to come up with an accompaniment for what you’re playing.
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Isaac Schmidt 42 minutes ago
For me, the best part is the portability. If this sounds anywhere near as good as the bigger model, ...
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Audrey Mueller 30 minutes ago
Take a look around the internet, and you'll see that Positive Grid has a reputation for abandoning i...
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For me, the best part is the portability. If this sounds anywhere near as good as the bigger model, then the combination of size, power, and battery-powered independence is almost as easy as picking up an acoustic guitar for practice. <h2> Negative Grid </h2> There's only one downside to all this, though.
Scarlett Brown Member
access_time 52 minutes ago
For me, the best part is the portability. If this sounds anywhere near as good as the bigger model, then the combination of size, power, and battery-powered independence is almost as easy as picking up an acoustic guitar for practice.

Negative Grid

There's only one downside to all this, though.
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David Cohen 49 minutes ago
Take a look around the internet, and you'll see that Positive Grid has a reputation for abandoning i...
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Take a look around the internet, and you'll see that Positive Grid has a reputation for abandoning its products surprisingly soon. Current software goes without updates while new versions are launched, for example. And with gear that's so heavily reliant on software, this could be a problem.&nbsp; "I dumped PG a while back when they said something like 'We can't fix the bugs in the current version because we focused 100% on the next version.
Ava White Moderator
access_time 42 minutes ago
Take a look around the internet, and you'll see that Positive Grid has a reputation for abandoning its products surprisingly soon. Current software goes without updates while new versions are launched, for example. And with gear that's so heavily reliant on software, this could be a problem.  "I dumped PG a while back when they said something like 'We can't fix the bugs in the current version because we focused 100% on the next version.
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Luna Park 35 minutes ago
Once that's done, we may look at the old version,'" says Audiobus forum member BigDawgsByte.  P...
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Once that's done, we may look at the old version,'" says Audiobus forum member BigDawgsByte.&nbsp; Positive Grid But the units themselves, and the apps (when they&#39;re still new), are top-notch. And with the full-sized Spark coming in at $299, it seems very likely that the Mini will be affordable enough for most guitar players to use for practice. There are lots of other options, too.
Christopher Lee Member
access_time 45 minutes ago
Once that's done, we may look at the old version,'" says Audiobus forum member BigDawgsByte.  Positive Grid But the units themselves, and the apps (when they're still new), are top-notch. And with the full-sized Spark coming in at $299, it seems very likely that the Mini will be affordable enough for most guitar players to use for practice. There are lots of other options, too.
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Noah Davis 18 minutes ago
Yamaha's THR-II series are excellent and widely loved. Another option is to opt for a plain battery-...
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Christopher Lee 45 minutes ago
The Spark Mini, then, ends up looking pretty great.  "Don't expect the moon and the sta...
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Yamaha's THR-II series are excellent and widely loved. Another option is to opt for a plain battery-powered speaker like IK Multimedia's iLoud and pair it with a smartphone amp simulation app. It'll sound as good, if not better, but you'll have a lot more wires to contend with.
Luna Park Member
access_time 16 minutes ago
Yamaha's THR-II series are excellent and widely loved. Another option is to opt for a plain battery-powered speaker like IK Multimedia's iLoud and pair it with a smartphone amp simulation app. It'll sound as good, if not better, but you'll have a lot more wires to contend with.
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Luna Park 4 minutes ago
The Spark Mini, then, ends up looking pretty great.  "Don't expect the moon and the sta...
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The Spark Mini, then, ends up looking pretty great.&nbsp; &#34;Don&#39;t expect the moon and the stars,&#34; says Porkloin, &#34;but for the price and convenience, I think they&#39;re doing a great job. And it sure as [heck] beats what I had just starting out with my [terrible] practice amp and [an abysmal] Digitech multi-effects pedal!&#34;<br/> Was this page helpful?
Sophie Martin Member
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The Spark Mini, then, ends up looking pretty great.  "Don't expect the moon and the stars," says Porkloin, "but for the price and convenience, I think they're doing a great job. And it sure as [heck] beats what I had just starting out with my [terrible] practice amp and [an abysmal] Digitech multi-effects pedal!"
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